TGLS wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:57 pm
Dragon Ball Fan wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:10 pm
Admiral X wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:12 am
Ah, hyperbole...
what exactly am I being hyperbolic about?
Your argument is built around the idea that if an eight-year-old watches a show with the message "Forgive and Forget" they're going to forgive mass murderers and just let them go free, because the show forgave someone who did really over the top things. You argue that the show should give a "Punish the Guilty" moral, so they won't feel compelled to let mass murderers go free.
In reality, the show gives the moral "Forgive and Forget" because an eight-year-old still has a developing sense of morality. When some kid on the playground swipes their toy, if you're going around giving them the message "Punish the Guilty", they may very well decide to deck the kid after they get it back, instead of forgiving and forgetting.
In other words, your whole mass murderer argument is:
well, the show also has simple school bully characters, wouldn't including the big "take over the world" type villains in the same "forgive and forget" morals as the characters who's worst crime is tame compared to real life bullies, confuse the kids?
but again, some of the villains really are committing atrocities and it isn't always over the top. Starlight Glimmer's methods are things real life cults employ and Tempest Shadow and the Storm King's forces
burned down Ponyville!.
and it's not like kids media can't address this kind of thing. How to Train Your Dragon 2 had a villain that existed to teach the message that some people are just pure evil and it's utterly pointless to even try and reach them. the film even spells it out in dialogue: "A man who kills without reason
cannot be reasoned with!"
and it's not just about the moral perspective. it's about my own suspension of disbelief. I can't believe absolutely no one died or had their lives ruined because of the actions of these reformed villains when they were villains. where are the such characters that refuse to forgive Discord, Tempest, etc?
and there is a hypocrisy. SOMETIMES characters get punished onscreen but it doesn't satisfy me because they are so few and far between and it seems that the lesser the offense, the more likely they'll get punished but a war criminal like Tempest Shadow is let off the hook. and those few instances are played for laughs with clearly no message behind them since the episode's real message was already leaned beforehand.
and I've said that it happens in a lot of current kids shows and it was probably because of MLP's influence.
I am fine with forgiveness too but there is a limit. what happened to shows like the ones I grew up with like the original Powerpuff Girls or 101 Dalmatians: The Series? in the former, we had stuff like one of the title characters stealing something and instead of forgive and forget when she confessed, she got 50 hours community service or when another Powerpuff Girl beat up villains who weren't currently doing anything to collect their teeth for Tooth Fairy money, the other Powerpuffs let the villains beat the shit out of her as karma. in the latter, the main characters' antics get them grounded on a regular basis.